Recreating the sounds of the past is not an easy task. There are two choices the way I understant it: the band does it exactly the way it was done before following rigorously each detail of that music, so to say tones, scales, technique, and all; or, the band does a kind of modern collage mixing the technique to the sonancies or whatever. This second one can be done in two manners, let’s say; the first it is the band’s intent to do it so, the second the band does it not willingly. A great example is when the band plays the songs with modern instruments. The music is going to end up differently than the original. It is not the same texture, if you know what I mean.
Elder “Through Zero” is the second second example. This album is a collage of late 1960s and early 1970s Psychedelic Rock made with modern instruments and sometimes with modern techniques. The outcome is something that sometimes addresses to Marillion, other times to something more modern that I do not recall exactly now. There is one thing that outstands immeadiately listening to album tittle track “Through Zero“ that is the prominent bass lines. Other times as with “Strata” the band dives deep into Progressive Rock.
First of all, when I put “Sigil To Ruin” to play I thought it was an instrumental album due to the long instrumental intro I felt the music was some kind of hybrid. I mean, it was a band playing Heavy Psychedelic Rock with modern instruments and, most of all, modern vocals. The vocals are the thing that immeadiately addresses to modern music. That’s my strongest impression. There are moments, in the ten minute long “Strata,” for instance, that if the instruments were from 1960s the music would sound as if Chick Corea or other avant-garde Jazz Rock experiment the textures are almost the same. I say that as compliment. A fun fact is that the guitar sounds with the same opaque tone Jazz-Rock guitarists used to love back then.
Second of all, “Sight Unseen” reinforces my initial idea that Elder‘s intent is to give a modern wrapage to the heavy sounds of the 1960s. It starts with a very usual sequence of clean guitars with some ethereal mood that could be from an Atmospheric Black Metal band. Let’s say it is the mdoern way of playing 1960s heavy music.
Elder “Through Zero” will be released on May 29th via Stickman Records in Europe, in North America through Blunes Funeral Recordings and via Bird’s Robe in Australia.
Track Listing:
- Sigil To Ruin
- Capture/Release
- Through Zero
- Strata
- Sight Unseen
- Blighted Age
Watch “Through Zero” official lyric video here:
I’m just a lucky guy who has chosen metal to live with for a long time. Metal changed my life for good. It made me more confident and stronger. Metalheads are naturally far away from the mass mediocrity and don’t accept impostures from anybody else. Metal is more than music, it’s a life changing oportunity!